Rangers sign D Anton Stralman for two years, $3.4 million

So the Rangers avoid arbitration with Anton Stralman. According to Kevin Allen of USA Today, the deal is for two years and $3.4M.

From the NYR:

RANGERS AGREE TO TERMS WITH ANTON STRALMAN

NEW YORK, July 26, 2012 – New York Rangers President and General Manager Glen Sather announced today that the club has agreed to terms with defenseman Anton Stralman on a new contract.

Stralman, 25, skated in 53 games with the Rangers last season, registering two goals and 16 assists for 18 points, along with 20 penalty minutes and a plus-nine rating. He established career-highs in plus/minus rating, hits (76), and blocked shots (71). Stralman made his Rangers debut on November 23 at Florida after signing with the club as a free agent on November 5. He tallied his first point as a Blueshirt with a power play assist on the game-winning goal on December 11 against Florida, and notched his first goal as a Ranger on January 5 against Florida.

In the post-season, Stralman recorded three goals and three assists in 20 games. He tied for the team lead in power play goals (two), tied for second on the Rangers in power play points (four) and fifth in goals (three). He also tied for first among NHL defensemen in power play goals, second in power play points, third in goals, and eighth in points. Stralman made his NHL playoff debut on April 12 against Ottawa in Game 1 of the Eastern Conference Quarterfinals.

The 5-11, 193-pounder has skated in 265 career NHL contests over five seasons with the Rangers, Toronto Maple Leafs and Columbus Blue Jackets, registering 13 goals and 79 assists for 92 points, along with 117 penalty minutes.

In 2009-10, Stralman established career-highs in games played (73), goals (six), assists (28), points (34), penalty minutes (37), power play goals (four), power play assists (18), power play points (22), and shots on goal (121) as a member of the Blue Jackets. He led Columbus defensemen in points, assists, power play goals, power play assists, and power play points, and tied for second among team defensemen in goals that season. He also led all Columbus skaters in power play assists, tied for second in power play points and fifth in power play goals.

Stralman made his NHL debut on October 23, 2007, against Atlanta as a member of the Maple Leafs. He recorded three goals and six assists in 50 games as a rookie in 2007-08. Stralman registered his first career NHL point with an assist on January 10, 2008, at Los Angeles, and notched his first career NHL goal on March 21, 2008, at Buffalo.

The Tibro, Sweden native was originally selected by Toronto as a seventh round choice, 216th overall, in the 2005 NHL Entry Draft.

As for Sem in signing…
I would watch out for Carolina this season with “Sick Wrister”- Semin, Staals Bros, Skinner, Jokinen, Ruutu, Tlusty, Larose and great new coach Muller, who preach a total hockey with an accent to offence. All this guys average more than 20 goals. Very impressive and perspective offence. Will be fun to watch. What slightly puzzled me in this signing is WHY. Canes still are not even close to be a Cup contender (however I’m sure they will be in a PO), so why paying so excessively much, even for a year, if you don’t achieve much and will say good bye. If not, and you experimenting with him “a la new scenery” and he really shows some greatness in this year to a degree that you want to sign him for more now, it is doubtfully he lowers his price even for a longer terms, leaving you either on a square one again or in a financial trouble.

Carp
in reply to your tweet to Rupp about tornado warnings.
if he’s back home or visiting in Ohio
we’ve had warnings during the afternoon.
have no idea what’s going on now.
been in the basement working
so
if another warning pops up i’m ready

I am glad to see Stralman signed for sure. He especially had a good playoffs. He is probably an ok 6th. By the money they are saying at least that.

Yet, there is a part of me that says if he gets $1.7M, how does one justify Prust making that, too? Don’t get me wrong. Prust probably isn’t worth $2.5, but his contributions to the Rangers were significantly more than Stralman’s. Hence, he should have been offered significantly more. Was he?

Hey Carp, just a question. A few days ago you said something to the effect that the Rangers should not be considered the favorites out of the East, and I think your words were “not even close.” I can see why you might say that, but who would you tab instead? Seems like other than the Canes and Rangers everyone has gotten worse. Devs lost Parise, Flyers lost Jagr, Pittsburgh lost Staal, Boston lost Thomas, Caps have a still unproven goalie and lost Semin who in the right system can be effective, Ottawa seems worse. Rangers are certainly better, different, but I think better. How are they “not even close” to one of the other teams?

If its true about Detroit, you’d have to think he’s asking too many years rather than too many dollars. Detroit is almost a mirror of us right now, ~$13MM to spend and one key RFA (Abdelkader) to sign.

Peter, I just thought Pitt will be the favorite with Skidney from the start. Philly, with WWEber momentarily, was looking good. But you’re right, overall, the East got worse. And now with Nash, maybe the NYR would be favored.

also, the good thing about Stralman is that he can handle a lot of different situations, and he seems capable of handling minimal minutes when everybody’s healthy. You really don’t need anybody much better than he on the third pair.

… also, if the cap hit ever became a problem if, as somebody said, Sauer comes back and McIlrath makes his move to the NHL, Stralman could be Whaled and poof, the $1.7 goes away. So it’s just Dolan dollars theoretically.

I was thinking about what you said the other day, Steinbrennerization of sports. That should refer to owners demanding nothing but success from the teams they own, and spending whatever it takes to make that happen.

All fans should want their owners and players/coaches to care about winning as much as Mr. Steinbrenner did. Yes, he made some mistakes.. everyone in life does. But he always wanted to win, and thats all a fan can ever ask for.

*To be clear*, that doesnt mean that fans must view not winning the title as failure. This past Rangers season was a very successful season, a season of significant growth and progress.

But for the owner and team, it should be viewed as failure. Thats what all fans want from their owners, to care enough about winning to want to put the best product on the field regardless of profits/losses.

I understand what you’re saying, Tiki. But last year was a perfect example of a season that came up short that surely, overall, was nothing near a failure for the Rangers. Sometimes you have to take steps toward the goal, and sometimes you just fall short, and sometimes you have to be smart enough to not paint everything with the same brush.

Unrelated, I was just watching one of the old Batman TV shows. Commissioner Gordon looks a lot like Paul McCartney looks now. Even sounds a little bit like him.

Absolutely. This was the best Rangers season since probably in the 1990s. We did come up short. It was not failure. But knowing that the Rangers team needs improvement, Sather went out and got someone that he thinks will make this team better, Nash. And thats what fans want, or should want.

Unfortunately, there are a lot of owners in sports that just treat their teams like a business and dont give a crap about putting the best talent on the ice/field/etc to give the team the best chance to win for the fans.

Carp, I’m a transplanted Brooklynite living in Albuquerque N.M. Not to many good Italian Restaurants . But years ago I found an Italian Bakery , owned by a guy also from Brooklyn . makes cannolli’s just like home

Stralman is a good signing and he really stepped up his game in the playoffs as well which is very important. I wonder if this was sailing along and maybe Nash came here and sang Stralman’s praises from their days with CBJ? Or maybe this was going down anyway. Nonetheless as much as I love Stu Bickel I hope he is a capable enough 6th defenseman. I think we need 1-2 more but maybe they wait to see how McIlrath and Skjhkjhrgykje (pronounced Shay) work out.

It’s apparent from the leaks coming out that Doan is looking for 7.5 per yer maybe for as much as4 seasons. He is clearly out of his sun baked mind! He is 36, has only had two 30 goal seasons and is nothing more than a second line winger. Even by today’s crazy standards, he is NOT worth the money. The Rangers need to move on and look for either a good offensive dman or better yet, give one of the kids a shot at that spot. JT Miller should be first up.

Carp is absolutley right! Anything more than two years and 10 million is crazy. Pass!

Tiki – Agreed for the most part, I thought this was an awesome year to be a Ranger fan but am glad they are still trying to improve the club.

I was at CitiField yesterday for the first time in a few years, and the last times I was there it was much more crowded, and it really occurred to me – no matter what the Wilpons have to do, they really should beg borrow and steal (or did they already try that) to put a good team on the field. The Mets are not like the Devils who cant come close to filling a hockey rink even on their best days. If the Mets are good, that place is packed every night and you really make your money back and then some.

From a financial perspective, I dont see how as an owner you dont put a huge premium on getting a winning team out there. More tickets sold, better tv revenues, more concessions and merchandising, and when a team is great people will simply pay more for everything. But you have to be good first and foremost.

_From a financial perspective, I dont see how as an owner you dont put a huge premium on getting a winning team out there._

Because there’s a ton of financial risk in that. The worst year (financially) you can possibly have is spending a ton and missing the playoffs. Spending little and being bad, with all the revenue sharing in place in sports, is probably a guaranteed small profit with the chance of a large profit if your team surprises.

People are going to call me crazy, but Semin at 1 year 7 million is an absolute steal. Guy gets a bad rap, and maybe rightfully so- but talent is talent. This isn’t a Zherdev type player, guy is world class. Now 2 years 7 or even 2 years @ 5 per I would have hated, but on a 1 year deal there is little to lose. Would have loved to take a gamble on him with the Cap space we have.

I’m now in the “would really overpay Doan for 2 years” camp. We shouldn’t have many cap issues next year in the offseason and hes a perfect fit for this team. It’s tough to imagine Glen taking 8-10 mil of cap room into the season.

“Because there’s a ton of financial risk in that. The worst year (financially) you can possibly have is spending a ton and missing the playoffs. Spending little and being bad, with all the revenue sharing in place in sports, is probably a guaranteed small profit with the chance of a large profit if your team surprises.”

Anton Stralman is one of the biggest pleasant surprises the Rangers have had in a while. I remember watching his first game against Tampa, right after Sauer and Del Zotto went down. On his first shift of the season, he got beat terribly on a 2 on 2 as if he wasnt even skating. Things looked incredibly bleak. But he turned his game around quite quickly. It is ironic that upon joining the team, he considered offense to be his strong suit. Stralman is an incredibly solid defensive D man. It is easy to loose sight of this on a team that features Girardi, Mcdonough, and Staal. Stralman is the type of low budget, under the radar players that make good teams into great teams.

You engaged me, Tiki, not the other way around. And Steinbrenner, as I trust you know, is the exception to the rule, not to mention the fact that he was terrifically bad for the franchise for a decade and a half. What he did in NY is impossible in almost every other city in the country.

Michael – Stralman came around in POs and with plenty of direction and support provided needed minutes on the back line. however, during the season he looked very soft around the crease and had trouble in 1v1 battles against the glass. good news is he is a better than average Dman with a good outlet pass and excellent skating. plus he can speak Swedish with the King and Hags on the ice…

That’s my only point; wanting to win does not lead to winning and you have to be cognizant of that. Unfortunately, sports is a business for the people we watch play and the people who pay the people we watch play.

Stranger- I think sometimes the issue of how “soft” a player is can get overemphasized. Stralman plays a very impressive positional game and makes few major mistakes. Steve Eminger looks very “hard” around the crease.